Internationals
The Internationals are a BDL team that gathered from all around the globe. They were originally founded before Season 1 began, and are one of the Original 4 teams. They are the spiritual successors to Team AvsJen from the Trial Season, since AvsJen returned after the league reset to be a GM again, and thus founded the Internationals. The Internationals are nicknamed the "Inties", but have also been called "The Goat Train" and "Panties" depending on the context. Team Founding The Internationals had the 1st overall pick in the draft following the league reset. Like the other teams, they eventually picked five players in the draft. #svatty (1st overall) #stpatty (8th overall) -- Barney_Sumner, [[Javris]] #rusavsfan (9th overall) #punkdud13 (16th overall) #klozge (17th overall) Season 1 The Internationals finished 4th overall in Season 1, despite being the highest scoring team in the league (392 GF) and having a better +/- (+6) than the Pucktards or Prime#s who both finished ahead of them. They finished the season on a 3-game losing streak after starting 2-1. Season 2 In Season 2, the Internationals improved upon their poor inaugural year. Once again they scored more than any other team (637 GF) but failed to win enough to make a push for the Championship Draft. They finished in 3rd place with 14 points, just 2 points behind the Prime#s and 4 points behind the Pucktards. They succeeded in beating the defending champion Mongooses which gave them some momentum heading into their breakout Season 3. This was also the season caw9000 was recruited to the Internationals, and svatty started to earn his #1 overall draft pick. However, later in the season, assistant captain punkdud13 went inactive and failed to make another pick for the remainder of his career. He stayed inactive through Season 3 and was retired after that. NOTES: *(#) = benched pick *caw9000 signed after Week 1 as free agent *punkdud13 inactive in Week 8 and 9 Season 3 The early rise of the Internationals culminated in Season 3, with their first Championship Draft trophy . For the third consecutive season, they had the highest score in the league (744 GF). However, luck was finally on their side, and they managed to set a record with a +64 goal differential. Statistically they dominated the league, with three of the four highest scoring players. In the Olympic Game they finished in 2nd place to earn three points. They finished the season 7-2-0-0 for a total of 24 points, 8 more than the next closest team, the Beeters. It was, to date, the most dominating performance in the history of the BDL and is unlikely to be matched in the near future. Individually, GM AvsJen beat out 2-time scoring champion IceCold14 of the Pucktards for her first ever scoring title. Former assistant captain punkdud13 was inactive for the final year of his contract, and eventually retired. Former #1 draft pick svatty took over as assistant captain, but struggled for the second time in three seasons, with the 4th lowest score in the league. The player formerly known as stpatty changed his name to Barney_Sumner. NOTES: *Week 1 set current record for highest score in a single week *Olympics did not count towards personal stats *punkdud13 was inactive, and benched every week, and is not shown in this table Expansion After winning the Championship Draft for Season 3, the Internationals had the most to lose from an expansion. They had already lost their captain klozge soon after the season ended when he demanded a trade and sent to the rival Mongooses in exchange for drop_the_gloves. Then they found out that they could only protect up to 4 players (and no more than $3.3M in Season 4 salary) before the expansion draft. GM AvsJen scrambled to protect as many key players as possible. Fortunately the veteran and assistant GM rusavsfan agreed to re-sign to a 1-season deal for league minimum ($700,000) so she was able to protect him, as well as svatty, Javris (formerly Barney_Sumner) and newly acquired drop_the_gloves. However, they lost rising star caw9000, who was drafted by the Fighting Pineapples in the 2nd round. After the expansion draft, The Internationals added rookie free agent Warx to round out their roster. Season 4 Season 4 begins on October 7, 2010. Other Information * Former player klozge helped popularize the "Goat Train" concept. He created the original logo (seen at right). Also, prior to each week, he would post random pictures of goats and trains as a sort of good luck ritual. *Rival GM A33 of the Mongooses began taunting the Internationals by calling them the "Panties", because of the similar sound to the nickname "Inties". *For a brief time during Season 3, the Internationals were based out of fictional place "Intieland" when the league requested that all teams list a hometown. However, this rule was lifted prior to Season 4, and they went back to being "The Internationals" due to the fact that by nature, Internationals have no defined hometown. The Intieland location was often mocked by other teams. They remain the only team without a specified hometown. * Just before Season 4 began, svatty altered the logo slightly, replacing the old version (seen at right) with the new version (top of page).